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But isn't agency something we must care about in the extremes? Like when we feel deprived of it, or when we feel empowered? At least for me, it's not a concept I consider much otherwise - I don't sit around grading how much agency I had playing a game. And again, even if you do know whether...

I have never experienced such issues myself. Everyone I have ever played with has been aware of, and ok with, the GM "making stuff up" at their discretion. I don't consider these hundreds of people low on agency. If I happened to play with someone who wanted to have an experience where there is...

There are of course different ways to define agency. The subjective one is very common and used for example in management theory. What matters to the individual and the workplace is the feeling of agency. It doesn't matter how closely tied it is to the reality of choice or how comparatively...

Agency as I interpret the concept doesn't mean being able to affect everything, it refers to the subjective and objective experience of being in control and/or making choices. It is perfectly possible for one person to have full agency while being restricted greatly, whereas another person may...

For me, the books they release are all over the place. It feels like articles in Dragon Magazine in how all over the place the subject matter is. Here's a campaign setting! (maybe there'll be more material at some point in the future) Here's a book about magical items and a few random odds...

Games and rules do not do anything on their own, they do not even create (or reduce) player agency (or character agency). The social contract is what creates these things. Players (including the GM) have explicit and implicit agreements about what rules system to use, the degree to which the...

Then I expressed myself poorly if that was you reading. Of course styles and systems produce different experiences and levels of agency. But I still posit that this pales compared to the impact made by, say the GM. If a player complains about lack of agency (as in the example in the original...

I'm somewhat baffled at the focus on systems and philosophies, and whether one or the other is or is not good at this or that. I've always found the main determining factors for how good of an experience a role-playing session is are the people involved. Their chemistry, their skills, their...

Having given my say on player agency as a general concept, I just realized I forgot to give my own take on player agency. What do I look for in player agency? For me there are two important parts of agency that I value: 1) Being given the opportunity (by the GM and other players) to make...

I don't think you can fully separate 'player agency' and 'character agency'. Perfect character agency implies the GM should be able to accommodate any possible action and act as a simulation engine of sorts. This cannot be done without accepting the possibility that character agency can impact...

Player agency isn't one thing. Every single player will have different expectations on what it is - even if there are of course some very common themes. - Some players want to feel that there are real stakes - that failure has consequences, and that their actions matter. This doesn't always...

This is an incredibly difficult question. Books have many different kinds of quality, and I am not sure it is possible to aggregate all of these into a singular ranking. But if I really have to, I would go with Lord of the Rings. If only looking at recent litterature, Oathbringer by Brandon...

I think the WotC/Hasbro strategy for the digital table-top is an important part of why they are probably taking multiverse perspective of their campaign worlds - essentially treating each setting book as part of the same overall setting. So he is right when he says they don't consider the...

Oh. I have no problem with them doing that. Not at all. I am just weirded out that it seems there's not much else - especially when I see this massive amount of releases for other games. Like Games Workshop is making more money than ever and they're releasing tons of books - even their licensed...

As someone who started out with 1st edition, played 2nd edition throughout my teen years, then played 3rd edition before life caught up, and now a few decades later am back looking at picking the hobby again - the D&D campaign settings are massively disappointing! Just a single book for most -...

Oh, agree that outsourcing the work isn't ideal either. I would think the best solution is to simply not to go into that line of business - but to pick from among the winners of what is bound to be a very ruthless struggle to deliver this kind of service. And bringing along the D&D license will...

I am skeptical they have the organization, culture and people to build an organization capable of running their own service. I think the best bet for them is to attach their license to a service developed and maintained by a different company. But I do think it makes sense for them to build up...

Hasbro really just needs to sit on the IP until the technology catches up and they can attach their IP to whatever AI-powered online RPG service looks the most promising. I think that's where a lot of the digital money is going to be for them. The physical space is an income stream, and will...

For PC games I believe the figures are somewhere around 25% of games are never even launched once. A lot of TTRPG players buy books to collect and to read. Some buy them hoping to use them, but never do. But you're right that for books "never used" is not easily defined. "Never read" is probably...

The last point isn't entirely correct. An AI system which does image transformation of various kinds does not need a dataset to draw from to perform its function. It usually has no dataset during operation. Data was used during the training process, but that's a different thing - and it can also...